More than just meeting regulations, strong Environmental, Health, and Safety (EH&S) Management in your chemical warehouse is integral to your business success.
EH&S management is a ubiquitous part of modern business. But don’t think of chemical warehouse EH&S management as just a set of requirements to meet and disregard. Successful management of these requirements will increase worker productivity, increase revenue, and protect your business from potential harm.
What is EH&S Management?
Let’s start with the basics. EH&S management involves creating the systems to address environmental, health, and safety concerns of a business. On the environmental level, this might include addressing waste management or meeting environmental regulations. For health, this can include OSHA compliance, health of workers, and equipment inspections. In terms of safety, EH&S management might address issues such as fire codes or medical response teams.
There are a number of issues particular to third-party (3PL) chemical warehouse EH&S management, including proper storage, waste management, and hazmat services.
Why is chemical warehouse EH&S management important?
- First and foremost, successful chemical warehouse EH&S management is important for your employees. It is vitally important to create a healthy and safe work environment.
- Preventing chemical contamination is not only good for the environment, but such prevention ensures that your employees operate in a healthy environment.
- Good chemical warehouse EH&S management is a risk mitigator. You protect yourself from compliance lawsuits or potential brand disasters. It only takes one chemical spill or unsafe worker injury to ruin your brand’s name and reputation, which can greatly decrease your revenue.
- Another benefit of successful chemical warehouse EH&S management is improvement in your employee morale and company culture. Employees want to know that they are working in a safe environment, with leadership that cares about their health. Happier employees stay longer and are more productive.
How to improve your chemical warehouse EH&S Management
Okay, so we’ve seen why chemical warehouse EH&S management is important. Now let’s look at how can you improve your department.
- Take ownership of EH&S. Instead of treating EH&S like a requirement you must fulfill, look at it as an opportunity to create a partnership with government and agency partners. We look to the example of Inland Star logistics, who run what they call EHS3 – Environmental, Health, Safety, Security, and Sustainability. This program actively goes above and beyond to make sure that their third-party chemical warehousing systems are the safest and as sustainable as they can be.
- Evaluate your current EH&S capabilities. This might include an internal survey or external audit.
- Ask the right questions. What problems do you see on your audit? How do your competitors address similar issues? Do employees ignore potential safety concerns in a rush to meet time demands? Does upper management encourage safe behavior? Do you give accolades for safe and healthy actions? Do employees take pride in producing a quality product?
- Make a plan. After you’ve evaluated your current EH&S performance, make a plan to address your areas of improvement. Rather than just throwing money at the department which handles EH&S, create a thoughtful plan to address issues and improve performance. Then check your plan on a set schedule, and make sure to measure your improvement under the plan.
- Look to the future. We again admire Inland Star logistics for their commitment to keeping EH&S current. They have acquired the Responsible Care Management System certification, which includes anti-terrorism activity that was developed with the Department of Homeland Security. Ask yourself what new facets might become future chemical warehouse EH&S management concerns, and make sure you’re ready to address them.
Our third-party chemical warehousing services are designed with the highest EH&S standards in mind. For more information about Palisades Logistics or to request a rate quote, please contact us at 973-331-8220 or via this website using the Contact Form.
